16-35 ZA vs GM for environmenal portraits?

I think the 16-35 2.8 does allow some convenience to carry less, if that really is your goal. You specified walking around cities - and the ultrawide will allow for architectural captures, and tight quartered photos, while the 35mm end of the lens is a very preferred FL for street photography. Paired with 2.8 for low-light interiors and for your concert shooting, it sounds like a good fit for you.

That being said, I also think you'd be very satisfied with the 16-35 f4 and a 35 1.4 combo. The 35 1.4 for portraits is absolutely killer when shooting wide open. 1.4 versus 2.8 for subject isolation is a huge difference at this FL. I understand there is overlap between the lenses, but for most cases you will know what you want to use when you walk out the door. If I have a portrait specific shoot, sometimes I even would bring both if you really wanted a wide environment, but 99% of the time the 35 1.4 would live on my camera along with an 85 prime for portraits.

So. I think you'd like either option. No clear suggestion from me. Except one. Don't think about the rokinon in this decision making. It's a very inexpensive, effective niche lens. If its your astro lens it probably doesn't live in your camera bag adding unnecessary weight. I'd sell it if you get the GM, but it shouldn't be that much of a factor in the decision making.

Thanks for the great reply. We ended up in the same conclusion and I'm still a bit undecided. I'm glad I still got time to decide on this (quite busy working atm and the next trip is going to be in January or so).

If I end up thinking that f/2.8 doesn't really make a difference against f/4 (and I should always carry at least a small 50ish lens on my pocket for casual portraits) then the 12-24 steps into a game as well and makes this decision even more difficult. Would probably be really good lens for some interior photography I also do quite often.

I'm mainly a prime shooter. Not a pixel peeper at all (even if i have the A7rll) but I love how prime makes me really think about my composition and also like fast lenses and possibility for short dof. I also like extreme wide angles. That being said I'm also considering forgetting the zoom and use that money for other things. For the price of the GM I could pretty much get:

- 21 converter for my 28/2 as a travel combo. Had this one on loan some time ago and really liked it. Image quality was ok for me. Those two on A7rll was like a prime shooters wide-angle zoom without the extreme.

- Voigtländer 10mm or 12mm f/5.6. Small and lightweight to throw in a bag and extreme when you need it. On the crop mode they're more subtle superwide.

And yes, I know Barcelona is famous for it's theft problem and the same thing is happening in many cities with lots of tourists. Usually you can get away with some common sense. But that was one of the reasons to wanna have a one lens solution so I would only need to take care of my camera and not a camera and a bag.

So at this stage I have made myself many options:

1)

- Sony 16-35/2.8 one for all wa solution taking all of my lens budget this winter

2)

- Sony 16-35/4 for travels and landscapes and keep using the Samyang for astro

- Could add the FE 35/1.4 for those environmental portraits

3)

- Sony 12-24/4 and would keep using my 50ish lenses when needing a casual portrait

4)

- 35/1.4

- 21mm converter for the 28/2

- 10/12mm Voigtländer

Btw, the last 5 years or so I've been using the SEL 10-18 cropped and actually I liked it very much for anything I didn't need a short dof and could use a base ISO on a tripod. But it broke down and now thinking about replacing it with full frame lens(es).

I might need to figure this one out myself but I love to read your experiences and opinions Never had this much problems deciding what's the most important.

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